Metal helmet and scale armour
Casco metálico y armadura de escamas
- Date
- c. 1700 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Ur (helmet of Meskalamdug), Iraq; Nuzi and Dendra, Greece
- Credited to
- Sumerians (helmet); Hurrians and Egyptians (scale armour); Mycenaeans (Dendra panoply)
- Field
- Conflict
What it is
Copper or bronze helmet (Ur, c. 2500 BCE) and cuirass of hundreds of bronze scales sewn to leather (Nuzi, Egypt, c. 1500 BCE); the Dendra panoply (c. 1400 BCE) is the oldest complete suit of armour. They protected charioteers and the elite.
The gold helmet of Meskalamdug (c. 2500 BCE) is ceremonial; the copper helmets from the royal tombs of Ur were already functional.
What it led to
- A lethal distinction between the armoured elite warrior and the levied troops
- State arsenals with thousands of inventoried pieces (Nuzi and Pylos tablets)
- Adoption of iron and new infantry tactics to counter armour
Built on
- Swordc. 3300 BCE
- Tin bronzec. 3200 BCE
- Metal nail and rivetc. 3000 BCE
- Metal nail and rivet
- Hammered sheet metal
Made possible
- Hoplite phalanx and hoplon shieldc. 700 BCE
- Armoured heavy cavalry (cataphracts)c. century IV a.C. (uso documentado: 190 BCE)
- Samurai armour (ō-yoroi and dō-maru)c. siglos X-XII
- Hoplite cuirass
- Roman lorica squamata (scale armour)
- Lamellar armour